All in the Cards
by Kettering
Summary: AU - With his wife angry and pregnant and his fate bearing down on him, Miroku risks his marriage and his life on one last gamble. Entry for "Yakusoku to Negai Fanfiction Contest."
1. Preface The Game

Preface - The Game

No Limit Texas Hold'em - Poker game in which each player receives two cards facedown, to be combined with five community cards to make the best five-card hand.

Terms:

-All-in - having all your chips in the pot.  
-Burn and turn (Burn) - What the dealer does before revealing the flop, fourth street, and fifth street.  
-Call - to match an opponents bet but not to raise.  
-Fifth Street - fifth and final community card.  
-Flop- first three community cards, exposed simultaneously.  
-Fourth Street - fourth community card.  
-Raise- to not only match an opponent's bet, but increase it by at least 100 percent.

Notes:

-Almost all hands described are from the 2001 World Series of Poker, as written about by James McManus in Positively Fifth Street.

-All of the above terms appear as described by Mr. McManus.

-I wish I owed Miroku. Oh...oh yes...


	2. 1 All In

1 - All In

"A woman at the table can alter the chemistry of the game." - David Spanier

My wife didn't say goodbye to me this morning when I left.  
She didn't say goodnight the evening before, and she didn't even sleep in our bed.  
There's a long expanse of desert stretching out below me, barren and unforgiving, and it's just an extra scolding reminding me I shouldn't have left under such inauspicious circumstances.  
My wife is eight months pregnant and furious at me.  
And I am about to put my life on the line in a game of cards.

The Nevada heat is like being hit with a bat, striking me across the face with a dry lonely smack; tumbling into another cab, I can barely remember the name of my hotel, and the facades spouting games, goods, cars and women women women that sparkle in the late afternoon sun hardly register.  
I didn't sleep well last night. I generally don't sleep well alone, and that was the first night in a very long time that Sango hasn't been with me.  
I guess she must have slept on the couch. I didn't bother to check; I wouldn't have been welcome.  
Sometimes she goes down there anyway, if our baby is keeping her up, or if her back hurts, and those times she either tells me or I go join her the moment I realize she's gone. The couch is a special place for us, and being on it together is a special thing. It's most likely the baby was conceived on that couch.  
Or she might have gone to Kagome's. Maybe she couldn't even stand to be in the same house with me.  
That thought makes me feel sick, and angry at her, and it's with a bad taste in my mouth and a scowl on my face that I slide up to the receptionist at the Spiderweb Hotel, Las Vegas, and tell "Kanna" behind the desk that I'm here and I want my room.  
"The name, sir?" Her voice is dull and flat, her hair sun-bleached white and her eyes stone-cold black. A demon, of course. Sin City got its first taste of demons when this hotel opened over fifty years ago, and the town has never looked back. It only makes sense, I guess.  
"McHoushi, Miroku."  
Her face doesn't even register the name, and I'm not sure if I should be flattered that I'm still under the radar in the poker world, or insulted that she doesn't remember Miyatsu McHoushi, only the man who-  
"Room 1312. Here are your keys. The pool is on the top floor, and the restaurant-bar opens at-"  
"Thanks." I grab my keys off the counter and walk away before she's finished, lifting my sunglasses slightly with one finger to rub at my tired eyes, not even bothering to stop at the board that lists when the first satellites for my division begin.  
How is McHoushi not a mysterious whispered name of legend at Spiderwebs?  
How did she know that 13 and 12 are the numerical values of the King and Queen, my two favorite cards every day but today?  
If she saw my wedding ring, why didn't she ask me where my wife was?  
Where's Sango McHoushi, someone will inquire later. Why is her husband here alone?  
He's not cheating on her, is he?  
She didn't leave him, did she?  
Sango, where are you? 


	3. 2 Hearts

2- Hearts

"This is the source of my luck." -James McManus

The first time I met Sango was over a card table.

She was so beautiful.

It was an apartment-warming party for my best friend InuYasha, and his girlfriend Kagome. InuYasha and I were roommates our first year of college, and somehow never got rid of each other; Kagome was currently in one of my graduate seminars, taking a breather from her med school studies to check out the finer points of religion. I was familiar with most of the people at the party that night, including my most recent ex-girlfriend Koharu, but the dark-haired wonder laughing with Kagome was completely new and lucious.

Late in the evening, when several people had left and we were all down to cheap beers -the apartment rent was expensive, and the fancier drinks had been few- Kagome pushed me over to the card table, one of their few pieces of furniture, reminding everyone that I came from a long line of poker players, and I was one of the best they'd ever meet. InuYasha rolled his eyes, but he knew it well enough - I used to play him for laundry money, and there were several times when he ended up having to construct clean clothes out of sheets. It's always been my rule that if you're going to win, you win on every count and every cent possible... Although being the compassionate man I am, I sometimes did his laundry with mine.

So we had Kagome, InuYasha, and Kagome's old flame Hojou... and this woman, this unbelievable woman.

"I'm Sango Hunter." She reached across the table to shake my hand, and I immediately noticed the lack of ring. Good, good.

"Miroku." I said, flashing her the most charming smile I've ever mustered. "Miroku McHoushi."

"Your grandfather placed second in the World Poker Series, 1974. I heard it was a family game."

There was a round of mocking "Oooo's" like you hear on a cheap sitcom when someone does something naughty or racy. For my part, I was glad my crotch was under the table. What a turn-on, I thought, to meet a woman who is not only stunning but knows about my family legacy in the card business and...and...

...and seems totally unimpressed.

In fact I was shocked how blase she was about it. Kagome took pity on me and leaned in: "Sango is the best player I've ever met besides you."

What a conflicting explosion of emotions that night set off. Round after round, dollar after dollar, cleaning out Hojou, Kagome, and finally InuYasha, I got the feeling Sango really didn't like me. I was as good as she was, and she wasn't used to losing. Especially not to a man who, because of another family legacy, liked to hit on lovely women at every possible opportunity.

She didn't much care for that either.

It came down to a game of Texas Hold'em: two cards for each player, three cards dealt face down in a row on the table, then one to each side. The flop, then fourth and fifth street respectively. The rest of the game works the same way as normal poker, with flushes and straights and pairs. The trick is knowing when to bet, when to call, when to raise, and when to fold.

It's a game of pure, delicious tension. It's always been my favorite.

And that night, on the last round, with Kagome dozing on the couch and InuYasha sitting backwards on his chair, I looked down at my hand and found my favorite card: the King of Diamonds. A king and a black nine, and I was all in. I never fold with my king, and I never lose with it either.

But Sango just looked at me coolly, went all-in, and lay down what I would later learn was her own magic card: the Queen of Hearts. That queen and a black ten.

Tension built. InuYasha turned over the flop, all of it rags, low cards, meaningless.

And then fourth street. A queen. Holy shit, a queen. For the first time in my poker career, I thought I might lose. A queen with no king showing for me on fifth would mean a pair for her, minus thirty dollars for me and one indelible smirch on my pride and my success record.

If I won, I promised myself, my dead grandfather and parents and all the gods of poker, I would do anything. I would chase this woman to the edge of the world and beg her to be my bride. I would marry her and raise a line of poker-playing geniuses. I would, I would, I would...

A king. Holy...everything in the world, fifth street was a king, and I won.

"Shit!"was InuYasha's take on the situation, and Kagome offered a half-awake "Huh?"

Sango was livid, but she tried to play it bravely. She stood up and offered her hand again.

"You really are incredible. You played an excellent game."

"The same to you," I said.

And then, because I'd noticed it earlier, because I've always had a thing for that part of a woman, because it looked like an upside down heart and she'd been counting on hearts, I pulled her forward slightly and reached across to give her behind a consolation grope.

She punched me in the face.

-

She won't answer the phone.

I've left at least ten messages since I got here yesterday morning, suffered another sleepless night, and she won't answer the phone.

I'm a wreck. I've never been this upset.

I tell myself that if I'd known she was THIS angry, I never would have come. If there wasn't so much on the line, I reason, I would be home right now, rubbing her feet and making her laugh, making her love me. I'd be at home with my wife and our child, and not sitting alone in this room, the sunlight blazing in on a twenty-seven year old with a death sentence and no one to kiss him for good luck.

I've been running my left hand around the beads on my right, the rosary I've worn for the past twenty years, since my dad left me an orphan in the hands of a family friend. These beads are the reason I'm here.

Because I knew she was THIS angry, and I came anyway. Because there's my life on the line, and the possibility that if I don't beat nearly five hundred other men, women and demons in the next five or so days, I won't get to know the baby I helped make.

"Don't you understand that, Sango?!"


	4. 3 Double Solitaire

Poor little story...cuddles it It's very lonely.

Thanks to my three reviewers, it means a lot. And I'll reformat the first chapter so it's more accessible soon.

--

3- Double Solitaire

"When it comes to the subject of me, I am truly and utterly incapable of believing anything you say." - Kill Bill 2

-

"No."

'This is bullshit!"

"You're right, it is bullshit!"

That was the part when she looked like she might want to pick up the lamp and throw it at me.

"There's another way, Miroku! There's always another way! You go down there, you lose, and it's over!"

"And if I don't go down there? What do you expect me to do then? Keel over in the middle of telling you to push?"

"I thought it wasn't so much keeling over as exploding into a void of nothingness."

"Oh, thanks so much for the reminder, Sango."

I hated fighting with her. I'd always hated it. It was even worse to fight with her about this, the one thing that neither of us could ever get over, the very reason why I hadn't wanted her to get pregnant in the first place. So much for that.

"Well maybe you need the reminder so you can remember why this is a STUPID idea!"

"Then what else do you want me to do, Sango?"

"Be reasonable!"

"I am being reasonable!"

"You're being selfish and foolhardy! You're going to go down there, waste our money, and you're not even going to get what you need!"

"It's the only thing I need, Sango! It's the only thing I really have to have!"

"More than you need me?" She opted not to throw the lamp, but she did start throwing books; we were separated by the bed, our wonderful, inviting, comforting bed, and I ducked as she aimed each one at my head. "Is that what you're trying to say?"

"That's not-"

"You're going to go down there and play cards and sleep with anything you can find!"

"SANGO!"

"Now that I'm as big as a house what you REALLY need is a good whore to treat you right for an evening, not ask you to rub her feet and get her groceries because she-"

"SANGO I WANT TO GO TO PLAY CARDS AND SAVE MY LIFE!"

_Super/System_, my favorite poker strategy guide, proceeded to bounce off my forehead, and she didn't even apologize as I doubled over.

"SHIT, Sango!"

"If you want to go gamble your life and our future on this, then fine. Go do it. See if I care, and see if our baby ever gets a chance to know its father."

And then she walked out of the room.

I know she was crying.

I've been with Sango long enough to know the moment when that tough girl breaks down.

And if she had gotten out of her terrible mindset, the one that thinks it knows me better than I know myself, the one that's convinced I'll be sleeping with anything that has nice breasts and betting on the new crib we just bought, she would have known that I was crying too.


	5. 4 The Red Queen

4- The Red Queen

"Nothing is so powerful in drawing the spirit of a man downwards as the caresses of a woman." - Augustine

-

I've never been in such awful form going into a tournament. The nametag attracted a few raised eyebrows and whispers, but they did nothing for my ego. My satellite is in an hour, it's been almost three days since I got a decent amount of sleep, I can't even eat.

If only I could just have a few words with Sango.

She's my good luck charm, you see. She has been since we met. Until we got married and had them framed to hang above our bed, I carried in my wallet the King of Diamonds and the Queen of Hearts from our first match -snitched from InuYasha's deck that same night. They were accompanied by other tokens collected over the past few years that now carry my banner: pictures of Sango alone, Sango with me, Sango with Kagome and InuYasha, and the most recent, Sango six months pregnant, before she declared that if I came at her with the camera one more time it would go out the window. I wear the earrings she gave me our first Christmas together, and my wedding ring, of course.

My wife is my poker goddess, and I can't help but feel that even with all these offerings and proof of my love, my goddess is frowning on me today.

If I don't even make it past the satellite, I'm as good as dead.

She has to know that.

I have to know she knows that.

I have to call someone, somewhere, so I call Kagome.

"I can't believe you're calling from Vegas." Her voice is icy and I wince. I can only imagine what Sango's told her. "And from Spiderwebs. If you family would've just stayed out of there, you wouldn't have this problem in the first place."

"But I do have this problem, and I'm here to fix it. You know that. We've always talked about it, Sango and I."

"Yeah, that was before she was pregnant. Miroku, she could have the baby any day!"

"I know."

"You know, and you still went."

Is there no one in this world on my side?

"I want to be there to see my child grow up. To have other children. This might be my last chance." She sighs. I sigh. "Kagome, please, is Sango there? I need to talk to her."

"She's not here. I haven't seen her since yesterday."

"But she won't answer our phone-"

"I don't know where she is, Miroku, I'm sorry."

What do I say to that? Do I beg her to tell me if Sango is still angry? Do I ask her to wish me luck? Do I tell her that I'm sorry for all I've done, I messed up big time, I shouldn't have-

"Hey man." And InuYasha saves the day by taking the phone from Kagome.

"Hi?"

"Look, I dunno what to tell you. Sango was pissed with a capital T when she came over yesterday, and I swear to gods she looked like she might just kill me in your place."

"Thanks. You know, because that's what I wanted to hear. I play my satellite to qualify in-" I check my watch, "Forty minutes, I haven't eaten since I left home, I haven't slept since before that, and you tell me my wife wants to kill me. I mean, do you have any other great things you'd like to share with me before I go blow everything?"

"Yeah."

"Well?"

"Good luck."

"Excuse me?"

"Good luck. Break a leg and all that shit. Call if you need us to fly down."

And then the conversation is over.

-

My story with Sango doesn't go in a very exciting fashion. I didn't woo her slowly, from afar, waiting until the time was right until I confessed my love, she confessed hers, and we fell into bed.

I didn't keep her at bay with gropes, or try to drive her crazy by flirting with other women until we tearfully confessed our love and then fell into bed.

I asked her to dinner and a rematch a few days after the game at InuYasha and Kagome's. She said yes, though neither of us knew why. I guess she liked me better the second time around because we didn't make it through one round of Hold'em or even out of her apartment before we fell into bed, and then we ordered in pizza, played cards and made love until dawn.

I missed all of my classes the next day, including the one I TA-ed for, and I didn't bother to call in. I was ass over knees for her, and have been ever since.

You see the one thing I love better than cards is women, and the one thing I love better than all women is Sango, my beautiful Sango, my wonderful, perfect Sango.

And what makes her even more special is that Sango is, as I mentioned before, an excellent poker player. Many of our following dates involved local poker tournaments, and when we were there no one else took first and second. We drove down to New Orleans once to compete there. She took second, I took third, and we spent it all our winnings on expensive dinners, hotels, and were broke by the time we came home.

Kagome told me she'd never seen Sango happier.

InuYasha told her he'd never seen me more monogamous.

But one evening when I told her that during our first game I'd made a deal with the poker gods that if I won, I would marry her, she threw the entire deck we were playing with in my face and told me to leave.

Whenever she's upset, she always aims above the neck.

-

I choke down half a roast-beef sandwich before I feel like I'm going to throw up and go check my seating assignment. The satellite rooms are already full of players, reporters, spectators, dealers, and a few of the managers of Spiderwebs - it's their eyes that I draw when I walk into the room.

They've either identified the McHoushi legacy on site, or they're worried I'm going to vomit on one of the felt tables. They are both distinct possibilities.

There's a lot of big names here, and a lot of great competition from people I've never heard of before. I blink to focus as I think I see InuYasha's older brother across the room, but Sesshoumaru would never lower himself to a competition like this.

Sitting down in my seat, I survey the others as they begin to filter through the crowd and take their places. A lot of them are demons, which only makes sense. If you want respect in the poker world, and in Vegas, you come to Spiderwebs and you play Naraku's game. It's the only time when you can mostly count on him not stabbing you in the back.

For at least a few days.

I see a few women meandering around, and it makes me smile, if ever so slightly. I've always felt poker needed more women, but then I've always felt every vocation needed that. It's another thing I was taught by my father before his death: to respect and love the fickle nature of both the cards and women, and they'll reward you.

Sango and I have talked about coming here together and playing for the real deal.

Had might be a better word.

If she were here right now, there'd be no question I would win the whole shebang, but I've got nothing and no one but the shiny paper faces on the pictures I pull out of my wallet, laying them in chronological order at my place.

She might be busy hating me right now, but as long as this ring is on my left hand and I still have my right, her face is going to be my lucky charm, and my baby a reason to win.

At the very least, having her pictures here will keep me from puking on the table.

I hope.


	6. 5 The Black King

It's alive! I have readers! I dance! Oh hooray! I can do author notes! I'm excited. :)

A. Nonny Mouse - Interesting but simplistic? I'll see what I can do. Are you still reading?

Vilja - I appreciate both the fact that you have supportive comments and that you've said  
something twice. I love attention. I need attention. Thank you.

Houshi Lover - Wah! I love you! I kiss you! You really like it? I post more for you! Thank you so much. :)

Morelen - Er...some of the chapters are longer than others... It'll get better! I update! I'll put up another chapter later today too.

SangoLancer200 - Thank you very much, both for your support and for your vote. ;) And I won't tell. I'm glad you thought to comment too - it really means a lot to me.

-

5- The Black King

"[W]e know how dangerous people are who don't need anything." -Stephen Dunn

-

First there was nothing. Desert. Sand. Some cactus and a nuclear sun before they even started testing the bombs just a few hundred miles south of here.

And then there was Naraku.

Demons have always been in this world. Unless they're quite remarkable or conspicuous in appearance -as InuYasha is with his dog ears- they blend fairly well...until the snap and the bloodbath or the curse.

Ah, curses.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Naraku was someone you didn't screw with long before he came west, but most of the people who knew him then met a number of creatively gruesome deaths. No one really knows what made him leave the eastern seaboard, and no one asks. What is known is that he settled down in the dead earth and built Spiderwebs, a haven for poker players who wanted to try for big money and not get in trouble with the law. Fine by me, fine by everyone. Because cards is the one thing on this little blue planet that Naraku will be fair about. The legend goes that the only woman he ever loved (and yes, she was a human, the rumors call her "Kikyou") taught him how to play, and in her honor, he has never cheated, rigged the cards, or killed an opponent at the table.

After leaving the table, all bets are proverbially off, but the stories mostly say that unless the bet is life or death, he's honored every gamble.

But that's because Naraku tends to always win.

It's a demon city, Satan should rule, right?

Right.

So time skipped rope until 1974, when Naraku decided to draw the attention away from the newly glamourous Sunset Strip and put Spiderwebs back on the map. He declared the World Poker Series, and at that time it was really just him and a few of his cronies -because can you really say that demons have friends?- and a few scattered humans, one of which just happened to be my grandfather, Miyatsu McHoushi.

My grandfather and Naraku had a long, dangerous rivalry, so needless to say the chance to finally end it once and for all was an intriguing prospect for both of them.

Final round, final table, final two, Naraku upped the ante with an all-in and a threat: if he won, he'd place a deadly curse on my grandfather that wouldn't be broken until one of his line won the tournament. If my grandfather won, he could kill Naraku.

Who could resist a gamble like that?

-

There's a rhythm to the cards, a pulse. It swoops up and down, and you have to catch it, you have to get into it, you have to know how to read it or you'll never make it past the first deal.

It's this pulse that finally brings me out of my funk and into the game, the siren song of the cards, the endorphin rush of a good hand, the testosterone levels that skyrocket when you draw that ace and you know, you just know with a seventh sense that yours is the winner.

A winning hand was the first thing I fell in love with, when I was four years old and my father started teaching me the very basics of the four suited gods that would rule the rest of my life.

There's nothing like it in the world.

Except being with and/or making love to Sango, but we're not thinking about that right now

No, we're thinking about how no one else at this table deserves to get into the final showdown as much as I do. We're thinking that "Juuryomaru" or whoever across the table needs to stop drooling all over his cards and start betting something that matters. We're thinking that "Jaken" needs to stop muttering that my grandfather got what he deserved and start calling. We're thinking that no one else has a better hand or a better concept of the game, no one else knows for certain that his genetic code doesn't run A, C, G, T, but diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs.

At midnight, I have to go to the bathroom, I have to call my wife, I have eat something or I'm going to pass out, but I also have more than half the chips on the table, $10,000, and there's one guy between me and the big show.

His tag says "Bankotsu," and he's got a smile that I've seen in the mirror - he knows he knows. He's fast and smart, and the flash of red in his eyes says he's more than willing to bleed chips until I'm gone.

And he picks up his cards with a shit-eating grin, and says "Where's your wife, McHoushi? I thought she was a fair player herself. Reading about you two in _Card Player_, I would have thought you were inseparable."

"She's pregnant." I hear myself saying. "The stress would have been too much for her. We decided she should stay at home." That's something like the truth. My hand is two black queens, and if he doesn't have kings or aces, I could have him on this turn. "All-in."

"Congratulations, man." Bankotsu raises and eyebrow, looks at his hand, and then checks me. "All-in yourself."

I show him my hand, and he doesn't register any surprise or terror -damn those demons and their perfect poker faces- and he puts down the king and ten of diamonds.

He's playing my card.

And I won't stand for that.

My fingers are stroking my wife's photographed face as the dealer turns over the flop.


	7. 6 Love and War

I'm heading back to school, and I'm not sure when I'll have the internet up again, so I thought I'd post one more, just one more, before I go. Sorry it's not that long!

-6- Love and War

"Why haven't you called me?/ Did you forget me?/ I need to know/ When were you intending/ to break the silence/ and let me know?" - Weezer

-

Sango mad has always been a sight to behold.

I couldn't get her to talk to me for days. She would hang up the phone or slam the door in my face. This wasn't the first time a woman had done these things to me, but usually there was a good reason - I'd cheated, I'd flirted, I'd slept with her roommate- and both of us knew it. This time I had no idea what I'd done to merit such treatment, and it came down to me shouting that through her door.

She shouted back. Ah, what a classy scene we made.

She said she didn't want anything to do with the probable existence in my "shitty family of some tradition of wagering love across the card table, wooing and bedding women who are worse at them at cards so they can feel privileged and not threatened."

I nearly punched down her door.

In fact I tried until my knuckles were bloody and several beads broke off my rosary, and then we went back to shouting.

I reminded her that in fact, she was as good as I was if not better.

She said she wouldn't be a gamble made between me and my sense of obligation.

I told her she was no obligation.

I said "Sango, you and I are a pair, the perfect pair. We're like the king and the queen, we-"

She said "I don't want to hear any more of your stupid card analogies! I'm sick of it! I'm sick of just being your poker fuck buddy! You're not worth crying over if that's all I'll ever be for you!"

That was the first time she tried to break my heart, that anyone had tried and succeeded, and I didn't know what to do. My Sango, crying? I made her cry? So I leaned against her door, my forehead touching the cold, uncaring wood.

"If you won't listen to that, will you listen to me if I tell you I love you."

There was silence.

It must have been days and days before she asked quietly, muffled by the two inches of solid oak that kept us apart, "Do you really love me?"

"I love you, Sango. I love you so much I can hardly tell you."

A week passed, and I finally pushed back from the door-

"Miroku, I love-"

-exactly when she opened it.

Right in the face.

Like I said, when Sango is mad, she always aims above the neck.

We made up by spending an evening on the couch as she tended my bloody nose.

I bought her engagement ring the next day, but I didn't actually ask her to marry me until several months later.

Because what had somehow gotten lost in our relationship was the story of my curse.

-

I'm groggy, dizzy, nauseous but somehow hungry, and I am in the WPS.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, but Bankotsu came too close for my comfort with my own king -asshole- and all for me to find out that he was already in.

I want to fall into bed, but I have to call, I have to try one more time.

The phone rings and rings, and her voice answers, but only thanks to mocking machinery.

Dammit.

Where is she?

A brief, horrifying thought crosses my mind -what if she's gone into premature labor?!- but my last few reserves of logic give me a swift kick in the butt before they go to bed. No matter how upset Kagome is, she would have called the moment something happened to Sango or the baby. So she's not in the hospital.

Where is Sango McHoushi?

"Sango, it's me." I sound somewhere between drunk and in traction. "Sango, please pick up the phone if you're there. I know it's late, but PLEASE pick up the phone. I miss you, I miss you so badly, I made it into the tournament and I won ten thou, just tonight. Please, Sango. I love you so much, and I'm so tired and I miss you snuggling up to me and...and..."

I fall asleep with the phone cradled under my chin and my shoes still on.


	8. 7 Shutout

labs. There's a little something in this chapter that I'm wondering what people will think of, but so far no one's said anything. We'll see. :) This isn't letting me format it completely the way I want to..damn. 

SangoLancer200 - Hi! waves

Houshi Lover - Yeah, go on and snuggle him. He needs it. Please don't die...I...I..need you...

A. Nonny Mouse - Elipses are our friends! I'll be careful. And I also am creatively gruesome. :)

Vilja - You put so much in the review that I may have to e-mail you to cover it all. In short, thank you for all your observations. I'm glad you like their little world and especially their relationship. I won't say a word about the "obvious ending." You'll just have to wait. And when you're broke, you lose, and a satellite is a qualifying game before the main event, like a time trial in another sport or something. It determines if you'll play in the big game. :)

7- Shutout

"I ain't superstitious/ but a black cat just crossed my trail." - Muddy Waters

The Dead Man's Hand is aces and eights, named on August 2, 1876 when "Wild Bill" Hickok was shot in the back and died without relinquishing his hold on his cards.

There's no McHoushi's Hand, though.

No no, that would be too deliciously ironic, seeing as my grandfather barely had a hand by the time Naraku was done raking in the chips and fulfilling his end of the bargain.

A deadly curse, a hole in his right palm that inhaled anything it got near, a void that would ultimately consume the bearer, to be passed down from son to son until one of them returned to Vegas and was willing to put something as important as his life on the line at the final table.

My grandfather died before I was born, having tried for the rest of his life to get that far again. He never once placed in the final six.

My father, certainly not as good a player as his own, tried but usually got kicked out during the first few rounds. He lost my mother when I was two, his young son playing with the beads that daddy always wore as mommy walked out the door.

So the game came to me at four, my father died at seven, and days shy of my eighth birthday, the beads and fate passed on to me.

Women, cards, a curse. The men in my family are all the same, it seems, and we all like to live big on borrowed time. I did, certainly. I loved poker, sex was better, but if I could get them both that was the best. I was young and I was free and I had time. When the moment was right, I would waltz in and take home my title in a full hand.

It was only after I met Sango that the realization hit hard and heavy that the pain that sometimes woke me in the night was not imagined. I had much less time than I needed, or expected, or wanted. Each year that went by meant another lost chance to save my life.

It didn't matter until there was her, and there was someone to live for, someone to marry, someone to have a family with.

But how could I even propose a marriage and a family if I didn't know how much longer I had?

She would never forgive me if I died on her. And that in itself is a fate worse than death.

Arrival on Friday, game on Saturday, the big one starts on Monday, and it is Sunday and I am so very, very tired. My alarm has gone off no less than twenty-three times, and I cannot get out of bed.

I raise my head and notice that it's past noon, I've pulled all the sheets into a knot on my side, and I've clearly been getting very friendly with one of the pillows.

My plastic bag of chips is sitting on my night table, reminding me that all that clay is worth ten thousand dollars, more than I've ever made in a day.

Sango and I are not poor, but I'm still a graduate student, and being a TA doesn't pay well. Sango is a photo-journalist and does work for Harper's, but her pregnancy has slowed her down. Add to that the mortgage of our house, which we'll never own at this rate, and the lovely crib neither of us could bear to pass up...and ten thousand dollars means a whole lot to both of us.

Getting further in the tournament means even more. If I make it to the end, payment could be in the hundred-thousands if not millions, and oh, right, I might live.

I should buy Sango a present.

Women like presents.

I should buy her a wonderful present, and maybe when I get home I can convince her that it really is better for me to sleep inside than on a rack of spikes out back.

I need to get up in order to buy her a wonderful present. I need to get up and shower in order to buy her a wonderful present.

I need to call her.

Please, please let her answer the phone this time.

And when she doesn't, I chuck mine across the room.

DAMMIT! Forget about presents! What does she think she's doing to me?! She knows I can't stand silence! She's knows I hate it when we don't talk! She knows she knows she knows everything about me and every weakness and she's playing all of them, she's just twisting the knife deeper and deeper!

She WANTS me to die!

Well fine! Maybe I will just DIE and see if she cares!

I shower in disgust, throw my clothes around until I find something I feel like wearing, and right before I open the door, I hear giggling.

What the hell?

Opening it, I look left, no one.

I look right...no way.

One of the dealers from downstairs has what appears to be a college student pinned up against the wall. Her bowtie is undone, his hand is definitely up her skirt and on her butt, and you can tell she's just itching for him to undo those garters.

I know for a fact that this hotel has lots of back hallways, dark basements, cobwebbed stairways, so I can't fathom why they're outside my room, but what really blows me away is who this college student is.

"Ah! Miroku!" Sango's little brother Kohaku pushes his hair from his eyes and tries to pull his shirt down over the dealer's hands.

"Kohaku..." I say slowly, beaned by yet another curve ball that my life has hurled at me.

"Yeah, um, so I got an internship with _Card Player_, you know? They sent me here to cover, and I...oh, er, this is my girlfriend, Kagura. Kagura, my brother-in-law Miroku.."

"Hi Miroku." Her voice is a sultry purr the color of blood, and she's got eyes to match. She's a demon, I realize, and I can't help but wonder what Sango -who, with the exception of some of our friends, really has a thing against demons, but that's a different story- is going to think when she finds out. I won't be the one to tell her.

"Did you two...meet at school?" I ask lamely.

"Yeah. Sorta." Kohaku blanches and moves Kagura's hands from under his clothes. "Is Sis doing okay? She didn't tell me you two were coming."

Ouch, thanks Kohaku, right in the stomach.

"The two of us didn't come. It's just me."

He looks absolutely baffled.

"What do you mean, you came alone? I just talked to her and-"

"Baby, my break is almost over," his demon lover interrupts. "You can talk family later."

And she starts dragging him down the hall by the collar.

"I'll come see you later, okay?" He shouts back at me. "We'll have dinner? Oka-"

She shoves him into a stairwell, and before the door closes I can see her pounce on him.

Maybe I should just go back to bed.


	9. 8 Two of a Kind

Very short, so I'll post another one later.

Pairaka - Wug wug. Wug.

Vilja - You found the marble in the oatmeal! You get to drink from the firehose! A less than innocent Kohaku is nice, innit? And I dunno, maybe when he talked to Sango she sounded strange? I haven't the faintest idea....;)

8-Two of a Kind

"We can be anything we want together/ Everything we ever wanted for each other." - Brandtson

The night before, we lay on our couch, tangled up in each other and fleece blankets. We'd just moved in together, and the couch was the only piece of new furniture we could afford - everything else was a mishmash of our trashy apartment furniture and milk crates.

Her eyes were wet, and she kept rubbing a few of the rosary beads between her fingers.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"You made me forget. I've never been so alive before. I didn't want to remember that I'm going to die."

"How poetic. You're a complete and utter jerk."

"Well what did you think I wore this thing for? Good luck?"

"Yes, actually. You said you got it from your grandfather. I assumed it was some poker karma...thing."

"You're my poker karma thing."

"Shut up."

"Shutting up." I cuddled down next to her and rested my head on her shoulder.

I could hear her heart beat faintly. I watched her fuzzy-covered chest rise and fall.

"I won't make you promises I can't keep." I mumbled. "But believe me when I say that I will love you until the day I die."

"You'd better hope that's a long time in coming." she yawned, kissed my forehead, and then we fell asleep.

The next day we were playing a quick game of Black Jack before meeting InuYasha and Kagome for drinks. Sango bet the price of two Harvey Wallbangers, our favorite cocktail.

And I tossed out a diamond ring. Her big soft eyes got even larger.

"Miroku, what is this?!"

"It's my bet. Marry me, Sango."

She blinked, swallowed, looked at the ring, looked at me, looked at her cards, looked at me, looked at the ring.

"Show me your hand." She was shaking.

I laid down the King of Diamonds and the Queen of Hearts.

We got married on the brightest summer day I have ever seen.


	10. 9 Against All Odds

9-Against All Odds

"Et tu, Brutus?" - Caesar

I go up to the top floor and try to swim to clear my head. The room is basically a glass dome, giving a 360 view of the city around me, and the sun blazes in with murderous intent. I feel woozy before too long and decide to go seek out that present that I probably should get Sango, sure, fine, whatever, when I remember that it's already late afternoon on a Sunday - everything will be closed.

Sliding back into my clothes, I realize that I haven't left the hotel since I got here.

My first time in Vegas and I haven't even prowled the town. It was practically a wet dream of mine all through my teens.

...of course, that was before I met my wife, but I'm not feeling very happily married right now.

I should go find Kohaku and suggest we hit a strip club or something...but the idea rings hollow; I'm not in any mood to see anyone dancing, I don't want to flirt, I don't even want a drink. Maybe we could just cruise down the strip to a Taco Bell or a burger joint or something.

Heading downstairs, the last satellites and finals rounds of the other, minor games are in full swing, and the crowd is so dense the air conditioner is having a hard time keeping up. It smells like sweat, smoke, old perfume and cologne, the ink on the cards, tension. I can see Kohaku -unattached this time- taking notes as he speaks to former Hold'em winner Phib Hellmaster; Kagura is a dealer for the final stages of the Omaha tournament section of the WSP, and she looks good as she turns the flops and burns.

I decide to toss in on another satellite, just to make sure I'm prepared for tomorrow, but in a few minutes I've lost five thousand dollars on bad calls and stupid moves. And I can't tell if the girly-looking guy across from me is checking out my chips or my chest.

"Naaa, McHoushi, I've heard so much about you!"

I'm in no mood for this.

"And you are?"

"Jakotsuuuuu Shichinintai."

"That's quite a last name."

"I could trade it for yours."Oh goody. Now I feel even sicker.

"I'm married, thanks."

"To a woman? What a shame!" We're dealt the next round of cards, and while the other players fold, Jakotsu keeps shifting them around in his hands as he gives me a look that makes me want to crawl out of my skin. "But it looks like she hasn't been taking very good care of you."

"Yeah, you look like you could use a drink." A big red-haired man named AGaav pushes his cards into the muck. "Or an IV."

What is this, destroy my ego totally day? To make it worse, my stomach growls, earning some snickers, and my cards are shit. Another thousand gone, and I think I need to eat and take a little perspective on my situation.

Kohaku is still talking, but he sees me and holds up his hand, mouthing "five more minutes." I nod, and join some of the railbirds watching to see who I'll be up against tomorrow. There's a lot of chatter, about the current plays, about earlier matches, trading celebrity spottings. I think I hear someone describing one of the players at a far table as "playing barefoot and pregnant," but that must be some kind of insult about their technique.

Moving back towards where I saw Kohaku, I nearly bowl over a woman with long red pigtails.

"Oops!" she chirps, her voice sing-songy and sweet. "I'm sorry, I'm such a klutz, I never look where I'm-Miroku!"

Her hug nearly knocks the wind out of me.

Friends from home, my attacker Ayame and her boyfriend Kouga -both demons- sometimes join Sango, InuYasha, Kagome and I for our games. Kouga is standing slightly behind her, talking to someone I don't recognize, but he looks up and gives me a wave.

"Oh, Miroku, we totally didn't know you were coming! I said to Kouga, 'I hope we see Miroku and Sango, it's been so long,' but with Sango pregnant and all, we thought you'd want to stay at home!"

I'm tired of dealing with this question, so I just offer a half-smile and a shrug.

"Did you see the results for the big one tomorrow? You and Sango are way up on the list! You're gonna get great spaces with some awesome people like Hellmaster and-"

I don't hear anything else but that name.

"Sango?" I interrupt. "Sango isn't here..."

Ayame gives me the same look Kohaku did, and suddenly I'm very, very frightened by what it might be saying.

"What are you talking about? Did you hit your head or something? She's right over there."

As if she was Moses and the people the Red Sea, she points and there's a parting, and suddenly it's all too clear.

Sitting at that far table, her knees bent, her feet propped up on a chair, and her free hand resting on her big round belly, is my wife.

My Sango.

Playing barefoot and pregnant, just like they said.

What is she doing here.

What is she doing here.

What is she doing here and why didn't anyone say anything, why didn't my friends tell me, why didn't SHE tell me, why didn't she come to my room and-

Ayame is backing away, realizing she's said something wrong, and Kouga stops his conversation to come over, putting his hand on my arm - my whole body is shaking.

"Dude, what's-"

I can't take it. I push him away and start forward, shoving people left and right, my eyes narrow, my vision blurring, all that I can see is that my wife is here, she didn't tell me, she yelled at me for coming and then she came too, she's barefoot and pregnant and not even looking at me, she's-

Someone is dragging me the opposite way and when I realize I start to fight.

"Let me fucking go, Kouga! GET OFF!"

But Kouga has always been stronger than me, and he won't be shrugged off so easily. He drags me into the lobby before I twist free, and Ayame is in the doorway to the game room, ready to play bouncer if I try to go back.

"FUCK!"

I whirl away and whip out my cell phone, pounding in InuYasha's number.

He answers on the first ring, but I won't let him get a word out.

"Mi-"

"Why didn=t you tell me?!" I scream. "Why didn't you fucking tell me?! You bastard, you knew she was here and you didn't tell me!"

"Look, man, we just found out, and we're on our way to the airport, okay? I can't talk, we'll be there in a few hours."

"Why didn't you call me IMMEDIATELY!? What kind of friend ARE you?!"

"Gotta go."

And he hangs up on me.

"FUCK!" I shout again, throwing a phone for the second time that day. It lands near the poster stand where the names of all the tournament qualifiers are written.

There I am, Miroku McHoushi, number 45.

And there she is, Sango McHoushi, 124.

And I am so angry. I am so hurt. I am broken and tired and hungry and lonely and furious and scared and betrayed and I do the only thing I can think of.

I pass out.


	11. 10 Straight

Should I keep updating every few days, or is it too fast? Does it ruin the dynamic tension? Let me know.

Klutz82 - I'm glad you changed your mind, it makes me very happy. I think a lot of people are just passing it over, which makes the people who actually do read it that much cooler. I'm thrilled to see you're enjoying it too. I update for the continuance of your love!

A. Nonny Mouse - You're welcome! Or thank you! Whatever! :)

Vilja - Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, and I've read it over enough times to make sure I tied up all the lose ends. My last response was from a Weird Al movie...basically you pointed out the one thing that no one else has commented on. Miroku was thinking about going to a strip club because he's pissed at Sango and her treatment of him - it would be a way to get her back-, and Kohaku's "I just talked to her" was meant in the sense of "I have just seen her and spoken to her, therefore you must be insane if you think she's not here." I'm glad I've become more less obvious. I hope to throw a few more unexpected curves in before the end. ;)

-------

10- Straight

"Las Vegas got a pinup girl/ They got her armed..." - Tori Amos

-------

Sango got knocked up on our couch during a very busy week at the beginning of September, a little more than a year after out wedding.

Classes at the university had just started, and I was busy trying to balance my preparations for my TA class, my seminar, and working on a very overdue section of my dissertation. Sango was researching and writing an article for Harper's, an assignment that had been transferred to her at the last minute, and she was going to come in just under the wire.

We had barely seen each other for days. There were papers scattered all around the house, take-out boxes in odd places. We had no groceries, the laundry was piling up, Sango had forgotten to renew her birth control pills and I had no rubbers, so when we fell onto the couch in desperation and sheer horniness, we relied on that "natural family planning" bullshit, and Sango assured me she was in the clear.

She had counted her days wrong.

We thought she had the stomach flu, but when she'd been feeling unwell for two weeks, both of us knew.

Neither of us could say it, however.

We wanted a family, of course. The problem was my hand.

I'd started waking up in the night, my hand throbbing, barely able to hold a pencil or fork the next day. The pain would fade for a week, and then come back.

Time was starting to run out.

We were having a quiet dinner when, after two months without her period, Sango put down her fork, folded her hands, rested her chin on them and said.

"I'm pregnant."

I looked up at her.

"I know."

"I just thought I should say it. Finally get it out so we can't ignore it anymore."

"Baby," I reached across the table and pried one of her hands loose, taking it in mine, "I don't want to ignore it."

"Are you happy?"

"What kind of question is that? Unless I'm not the father, of course I'm happy."

"So what are we going to do?"

"Start letting your jeans out?"

"This is serious, Miroku!" Sango pulled her hand from mine. "You know what I'm talking about!"

"The Spiderwebs WPS is in May. You'll be pretty far by then, but-"

"No."

"No what?"

"No you're not going to risk everything on that."

"Well what else do you want me to do?"

"Find another way."

"What other way? You know that Naraku doesn't take deals, bribes, or anything unless you win the game."

"There's always another way!"

I heard the break in her voice, and I got up, walking to her chair and kneeling down in front of her.

"Sango, let's not fight right now. Please let's not fight. Let's be happy." I gave her the best smile I could. "We're gonna have a baby, Sango, and I'm going to be there at the end like I was at the beginning, right by your side."

I lifted up her shirt and kissed her stomach, and she hugged my head.

By the time she got her first ultrasound two months later, I already knew I was going to play the biggest game in town.

-------

Mumbling.

Something cool and wet on my forehead.

A soft hand rubbing mine.

"I think he's waking up."

"Miroku? Can you hear me?"

My eyelids weight a ton, and when I finally get them up the mishmash of blurred colors is so sickening I can barely keep from gagging. Eventually things start to smooth out, and Kagome's face is peering down into mine, concern etched into every bright young feature on her pretty face.

"Miroku?"

Kagome/here/InuYasha/we've got a plane to catch/Ayame/Kohaku just talked to her/barefoot and pregnant/124-

"SANGO!" I bolt upright, sending Kagome flailing off the bed as InuYasha runs from where he's been leaning in the corner to catch her.

"Shit, man!"

"WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?" I can feel tears in my eyes as I clench the comforter beneath me. All the lights are on - Vegas's day-lit night has come while I was out. I take a deep breath. "And how long was I like this?"

Obviously, enough time for Kagome and InuYasha to get here from Chicago.

"You were exhausted." Kagome takes her seat on the bed again and pushes me down. I slap her hands away.

"Answer the other question."

Her expression sours and she folds her arms.

"We didn't do anything to you. Sango called us this morning saying she was here, you'd both qualified, and she wanted us to come to support you both. We got on the next flight we could. Your phone was off and besides, we thought you knew. Kohaku knew."

She points to the chair by the window, where Kohaku is sitting with Kagura in his lap, their hands linked together over her stomach, and I have to squeeze my eyes shut and force my brain not to think about Sango and I in that same position not so long ago.

"That's why I was so confused earlier today." His voice is soft, it's hard to be angry at him. "When you said you came alone. Cuz I'd just talked to her down on the floor and she hadn't said anything about you two being... whatever you are right now."

I swallow and nod.

"Kouga and Ayame?"

"They went to find a KFC." InuYasha's voice is bitter, probably because he and Kouga used to be rivals for Kagome's affection, and he's never quite forgiven the other demon. "Said you'd be hungry when you woke up."

"And they didn't know either?"

"Miroku, why would anybody know?" Kagome picks up the washcloth that had been on my head before it wets the sheets too much. "She didn't tell anyone. I can't even imagine what would possess her to come right now."

"She's angry at me." I say. "She wants to stop me from winning. She didn't want me to come, and now that I'm here she wants to wreck my chances. She came to yell at me and throw more books at my head."

InuYasha raises his eyebrow at the last part, but he shakes his head.

"Sango wouldn't do that to you. She's probably still really pissed, but I don't think she came to fuck you over."

I can't nod. I don't trust his words. I look at the clock beside my bed, and groan. It's 11:30. I have exactly 12.5 hours, and then I'm due at my date with destiny. And Sango will be waiting.

I lay back down, rub my face, hoping to clear away the tears that I can still feel.

At least now I know why Sango wasn't answering the phone.

Somehow, it's no comfort at all.


	12. 11 Viva Las Vegas

It's official that I'm allergic to everything in the state of Ohio.

Houshi Lover - Yeah, he's taken a real emotional beating, hasn't he? You can love him up as much as you want. All of Sango's mysterious reasons will be revealed in time! I'm glad you're so eager to see what happens. :)

Klutz82 - I seem to be going every three days, which works for me. I'm so glad you like it and that you're spreading the love. Mmm, love.

Vilja - Sango is upset because he WILL die if he loses. The curse will kill him sooner rather than later unless he wins this game. If he loses, they'll have no money and Sango will be left with their child, alone. So that's why she's a bit pissed. Her other reasons will become clearer. :) And uh...maybe she did take a train? I dunno, she might have talked herself onto a plane..in any case, no more flashbacks. Enjoy!

-------

11- Viva Las Vegas

"You can set up all the plays in the world, you can play perfectly on a hand, and you can still lose. And there's nothing that you can do about it." - T.J. Cloutier

No more stories.

No more segues.

I blinked and suddenly I'm seated at table 36 of Spiderwebs World Poker Series.

The air is alive with cigarettes, microphones, the buzz of monitors and video cameras, the clicking of chips and the slapping of cards, talking and cheering and chanting and prayers.

More than five hundred people paid ten grand to get into the tournament this morning.

Kagome and InuYasha are sitting somewhere in the crowd of spectators.

Kouga and Ayame are playing their own matches.

Kohaku is everywhere in the room talking to everyone.

Kagura is flipping and burning and dealing.

And somewhere out there, gently running her fingers over the swell of our child as she thinks, is my good luck charm, my poker goddess, my everything.

I've forsaken all my banners today. I have nothing. I have no wife, I try to tell myself. This isn't about her, it's about me. It's about making it to the end. I'm all I need. I got here on my own, I can finish on my own.

The King of Diamonds was always a loner, but he'll sleep with Lady Luck if he needs to.

Just get me to the end.

The cards are fast and flashing, my hands are amazing, I'm throwing in everything because I have nothing to lose, and I am unstoppable.

I see two red jacks, and the table blesses me with king, jack, eight. I'm all-in. I'm taking this. In a normal game, on a normal day, I'd think about it more, especially when "Xellas" across the way gives me a look and says "Call" in a way that suggests she has two kings.

But no, she has the 9 and 10 of clubs! And fifth street shows her no mercy.

If you don't have something to prove, you don't get in McHoushi's way.

$35,000 and miles to go before I sleep.

Demons don't necessarily need rest, so the game becomes as much of a physical endurance test as a mental one. People have food delivered, the wait-staff is constantly bringing drinks, the light is smoky and there's the ever-present odor of coffee.

If I was thinking about my wife - which I'm not- I'd worry about what this is doing to her. She's amazing under stress, but these are long hours, and she gets tired easily now. It can't help her to be breathing all of this, and I'm afraid she's sitting on a full bladder and can't do anything about it.

I mean, I'm not afraid.

I have no wife.

$94,600.

Dinner break.

Kouga is out. Ayame is soothing his battered ego with a number of beers.

Every fry I chew hits with a bang, and I wonder when I'll ever want to eat again.

InuYasha informs me that both Kagome and Sango have retreated upstairs for power naps, and I tell him I don't care.

Because I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't want to be up there with her, stroking her hair, spooning behind her.

I don't want to so much it could shatter my heart.

But I don't have my heart anymore.

At 5 in the morning, or something that feels like it, Bankotsu and I are back at each other's throats, and I have started to make mistakes. People and demons are starting to droop and fade now, the piles of chips are building up, and I have had eight cups of coffee.

The cards are a blur, time has no meaning, and eventually look down: my hand is the King of Hearts, Ace of Diamonds. My strategy books are full of the dangers on this hand, but I can barely remember any word from any book I've ever read in my life. The jackass across the table is staring me down.

"I see your wife did come, McHoushi. Big surprise, huh?"

"I guess you could say that." Mind on the logistics of the cards you hold, not on Sango.

"She's pretty big, isn't she. Aren't you worried she might drop the kid any minute?"

"Less talking, unless to check or raise." Bless Kagura, who has been switched to our table. Kohaku made a good choice. And she has a nice ass.

The flop is deuce of clubs, five of hearts, four of diamonds.

"Check." I say, but before it's completely out of my throat, Bankotsu pushes several stacks of pink chips forward.

"Two hundred thousand."

I freeze. This is bad. This is very bad. There is no reason on earth I should consider calling this. It's a given fact that I shouldn't call it.

And then my hand pulses.

Once.

And again.

I don't have time. I don't have time to think about the odds of this working out. I don't have time to wait for better cards, for a better hand, I can't wait one more day.

"Call."

InuYasha has a mini fit in the bleachers. Kohaku jerks out of a doze, suddenly scribbling down notes in case this works out, in case miracles really do happen.

Fourth street is the seven of diamonds.

What does that mean? Does it help? Does it hurt?

Another pulse.

"All-in."

I hate you, Bankotsu. "I call."

He lays down an ace of spades and a nine of clubs, and lay down my own ace and king.

Yea, though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, Sango is my shepherd, I shall not want anything but the removal of this curse...

Fifth street is the jack of clubs, and I am saved.

Hallelujah, $866,000, more money than I've ever had in my life.

Bankotsu is out, and I am just about to thank my poker goddess, she's still watching over me, something's still right, I could forgive her, she could forgive me...

When she sits down across from me.

Suddenly I scan the room. This is the only table left.

I look down at my watch.

It isn't 5 am, it's nearly noon.

And there are four other people who don't have that same last name at the table, but the only one that matters is the one right across from me, the one I've held and kissed, the one who lives in my house, the one who's carrying my child.

I do have a wife, and her name is Sango.

And in her eyes, there's nothing.


	13. 12 Last Call

Still allergic to Ohio, but we're getting to the finish line on this crazy thing. Thanks to everyone who's been following it.

Klutz82- You're my favorite broken record! I don't mind. :)

Morelen- How's this for relief of tension? ;)

Vilja - Roger that!

-------

12 -Last Call

"One of us won't last the night/ between you and me it's no surprise./ There's two of us, both can't be right/ Neither will move til it's over." - Guster

-------

The first time I met Sango was across a card table.

Phib HellMaster stumbles an ace and a queen, getting taken by Jakotsu's pair of eights. Then there were five.

We played cards and made love until dawn.

Ayame also has an ace and queen, but she's up against an ace and four; she called excellently! The flop is nine, six, king, and she's going to go all the way. Fourth street is the five of diamonds, and you can see her eyes light up. And then it all comes crashing down when her opponent, Johnny "The Pirate" May, gets an incredible four on fifth street. She did very, very well, and she and Kouga will reap the benefits for a long time to come. But then there were four.

She opened the door right into my face.

Johnny also knocks out "Old Man" Totousai, and then there were three.

The couch was the only new piece of furniture we could afford.

It looks like it's a last-man-standing between Johnny and I when suddenly I realize I can't afford it, and Sango comes barreling over the wall, slamming him utterly.

And we got married on the brightest summer day I've ever seen.

She's saved me, but it's only a stay of execution, and she opens her mouth to speak the first words I've heard from her in five days.

"Did you have fun, Miroku?"

The room goes silent, and I'm certain it's because everyone knows all that's gone on between us, all the words we yelled, all the books she threw, all the messages I left to empty air.. But in fact it's because a very important individual has arrived from the center of the web, and his hands close down on my shoulders.

"Miroku McHoushi." Naraku says. "What a pleasure."

Since my childhood, I've thought of thousands of things I want to say to him, this horrible monster, this creature who murdered my grandfather and my father, but now everything is gone.

"Naraku." I swallow.

"And Sango McHoushi. Husband and wife together at the end. How romantic."

"Get to it, Naraku." Sango seems utterly unfazed. In fact she seems bored.

"You've both won a lot of money." He removes his hands from my shoulders and walks around, leaning over the table in between us. "Enough to purchase a large house with all the proper accouterments for a new baby, and toys for yourselves as well."

The world around me begins to shimmer - he's putting up a barrier, blocking everyone but Sango and I from this final part of the deal. Pulling up a discarded chair, he folds his arms and crosses one leg over the other.

"Well now, Miroku McHoushi. Thirty years ago, your grandfather made a foolish bet, and he paid the price. I gather you're here to reverse history. But I can't imagine why you'd take the chance of playing against your wife." Flashing, acid-colored eyes. "Is she your wager? Your life for hers?"

All the air leaves my body. The wager. Something of the same value as my life. I'd forgotten. Oh, god, I can't wager Sango, the baby wouldn't make it, I can't, I would never...

Sango reaches into the bag hanging from her chair and pulls out a sheaf of papers.

"This is the wager."

Naraku and I both lean forward.

I want to vomit. I want to scream. I want to run from the table and tear my eyes out. I want to find a cliff and throw myself off onto sharp, brutal rocks. I want to catch fire.

Divorce papers. She's put divorce papers on the table. They are notarized, and they are signed by Sango Hunter McHoushi.

Naraku smiles as he picks up the papers, and it's like a spider knowing that the last thing its prey sees is eight terrible eyes.

"Well well well. This is a surprise. Very bold, Sango McHoushi." He reads them over, scanning them for authenticity, taking his time, and then he turns to me. "Is this a fair wager, Miroku McHoushi? Would you say this is worth your life?"

My mouth is dry.

My insides are heaving.

The entire ocean is rushing in my ears.

"Yes." A cough, a heave, a hiss, a dying gasp.

"Very well then." Drawing a pen from his coat, he hands it to me. "Sign the papers, and we'll proceed. If she wins, we'll tear them up. If you win, you live. I like this trade."

I have no choice, so I write my name, forgetting midway through how to spell it, forgetting how to write letters at all.

The barrier ripples and begins to disappear, and my mind is racing, racing, racing. If I lose, I'll die, that's it, that's the end, she wrote no more...but I'll be with Sango. I'll be married to my Sango a little bit longer... maybe I'll see my baby. Everyone who knows my name and knows poker is aware that I'm here for my life, but none of them know what else is on the line.

My hand begins to throb.

But this is all I've ever wanted, isn't it?

Or is Sango all I've ever wanted?

How can I choose? How can I possibly choose?

"Let's play." Naraku leans back in his chair and takes out a cigar, lighting it with a snap of his fingers.

Through my trembling fingers, I see that fate has pulled out every stop to destroy me. A black ten and the Queen of Hearts. I know what cards Sango has. How could I not?

"All-in." Sango says, and pushes forward everything she has. The movement requires my wife to get up out of her chair - her large stomach limits the reach of her arms, and this is the only way for her to place the chips in the center.

She wants to finish it in one go.

"Call."

My hand hurts. I can barely feel my fingers.

I wanted to see my baby so badly!

My battered warrior, my old friend, my King of Diamonds and a black nine lie in her hands. How perfect. The reverse of our very first duel.

We met for the first time across a card table, and she punched me in the face.

Kagura takes a century to turn the flop.

Four of hearts.

Two of hearts.

Jack of clubs.

And then...

Then...

Not another queen. Not a king. A nine. A nine of spades.

I can't breathe.

I can't see.

I can't do anything.

Somehow I know Kagome is crying, InuYasha is biting his claws, Kouga is straining his neck to see, Ayame is burrowing into his side, Kohaku has devoured nearly half his pen.

Fifth street. Absolute fifth street.

Burn.

I love you, Sango.

Kagura's wrist flicks, Naraku's wicked grin widens, and it is the Queen of Spades.

I have a pair. My hand is higher. I win.

My life is saved.

My life is over.


	14. 13 Folding

Two more after this. I can't believe the time and emotion people are investing in this story. It really means so much to me, more than I can say.

Houshi Lover - Er...well, she has a lot of reasons...you want to give him more huggles?

Klutz82 - I live for the excitement. I post now! dances to the record player

Pirategirl90 - Thank you so much. And then more than that. I'm sorry I made you cry, but also kind of not sorry - I consider it a real achievement that my story would end up being so...strong for you. Thank you for reading it. :) I would have updated sooner, but I'm lazy...oops...

Vilja - O.o Happy ending? Well...I won't say anything. I'm glad I got you, though. ;)p I'm not that predictable.

-------

12 - Folding

"I started to cry/ which started the whole world laughing/ Oh if I'd only seen/ That the joke was on me." - Bee Gees

-------

I don't know what's happening.

There's an eruption, like the earth is collapsing, and there are flashes, like an atomic sun.

Naraku pulls me up, pulls me over to stand behind the $1.5 million in cash that I've just won, and he poses, shaking my right, rosary-ringed hand. There's one last pulse, and then it's gone.

Naraku leans close.

"If you ever try to compete in this again, if you ever step into my hotel again, that time the curse will be unbreakable."

I drag numb fingers across the beads, and they suddenly break from the string...leaving my hand open, and my palm whole.

"Hold it up for the cameras!"

What's happening? I don't understand.

"This is history! Never before have a husband and wife team taken first and second in an event like this!"

"Can we get you two together?"

"There's a baby on the way, when's it due?"

"Let's get a congratulatory kiss!"

A kiss.

A kiss.

A kiss.

That's all I hear, and with my arm around my wife's bountiful waist, I look down. She looks up. And our lips meet for the very last time. She tastes like breathing. She tastes like always summer and always sun and endless stretches of perfect sky. She tastes like my Sango.

And then it's over.

I must have answered questions for dozens of magazines and sports shows.

I must have posed for pictures.

I must have been briefed on how to get the money home.

I must have shoved away all the comfort my friends had to offer.

All of these thing surely happened, but I don't remember any of them.

When I am next aware of something, it is a man's weak voice, demanding a ticket on the next plane to Chicago, any price can be met, and hanging up before he starts to cry.

And then I am that man.

I am in a cab driving down the Sunset Strip into the phenomenon it was named for, and I am sobbing to the depths of my very soul.

-------

It's dawn by the time I'm barely standing on my front steps, leaning full body against the door as I blindly stab keys into the lock.

I cried the entire plane ride home. It was a red-eye, so most of the passengers were comatose, but I got more than a few looks from the stewardesses who wondered why a man on a night flight with the shade drawn would need to be wearing sunglasses.

I've tried not to think.

It's not like...I've never been dumped. But usually I did something to deserve it.

She did this just to destroy me. Just to make sure my victory was a loss.

Sango mad is dangerous, ruthless and unstoppable, and I guess this was cleaner than running me over with a bus.

But not by much.

The door swings open, and it's all I can do to not fall to my knees and start bawling again. But I win that battle with my will, and I step inside, and suddenly...I'm angry. Sango's not the only one who gets to be upset.

Dropping my bag -containing, among other things, $1.5 million dollars in cash- I stride forward into our kitchen, sweeping things off counters left and right. Papers go flying - hers? mine? does it matter?- and glasses tumble to the floor and shatter. Sango's laptop smashes down, and I barely hear it. I wrench open one of our cabinets, grab the first bottle of anything alcoholic I see, and chug it. I don't even taste it, and the bottle drops from my hand a few moments later.

The answering machine blinks with the dozens of messages meant for my wife that she never heard. So many lost declarations of love. I rip it out of the wall and it joins the mess on the floor.

She'll never hear them now.

I kick over our dining room table.

Who needs nice things?

Who needs anything?

The first rays of the first day of the rest of my horrible life a just hitting our mantle when I enter or living room and see our couch, our precious couch, our beloved, memory-filled couch.

And I show it no mercy.

By the time I'm done with it, no pillow or inch of upholstery is left intact. If Sango didn't care about the life and the home we built together, then neither will I. If she didn't care how much I gave up to be with her, if none of it mattered, then I don't need a single bit to remind me.

I know the creak of every stair and I kick each one on my way to our bedroom. I can't wait to rend the sheets, every single inch of everything we've owned together, and I know exactly what will be the first to go.

All it takes is a quick hand and the same flick of the wrist that Kagura used to turn over my fate, and our King and Queen are lying in broken glass on the floor.

I wish I'd never met her.

I wish I'd never gone to that party, I wish I'd never seen her face.

I grab the comforter off our bed and start pulling, seams popping and fabric tearing. The sheets are next, followed by the pillows, until there's stuffing everywhere, until it flies around me as I reach under the mattress and flip it over, until I look over to the big bay windows and see that crib, that expensive, indulgent crib, the crib for our new baby.

And I walk toward it, ready to tear it to pieces, ready to claw apart the little blankets and pillows, or better yet, push it all out the window, yes, that's it, the windows, but when I grab the side...I can't.

I can't.

I went to Las Vegas so I would be alive when my child was born.

I did it so my baby would be raised with a beautiful, loving mother and a father, just the way I wasn't.

God, I love her. I love Sango so much, and I wanted to...

I wanted to...

I wanted so many things.

I never wanted to be a broken man, falling to the floor and weeping into the mattress he just tossed off his bed.

But we rarely get what we want, do we?


	15. 14 Winner Take All

This is it. My final update. Because the next part is the epilogue, I wanted to post the two together. I'd kind of rather leave the epilogue to speak for itself, so I don't think I'll put any author notes there.

I wanted to say thank you for anyone who read it and was able to get past my own fixation with poker to see the story behind it. This is the first thing I've put out in public in a very long time, and it seems to have gone over well, and that really means a lot to me.  
If y'allz ever want to contact me in the interim between this story and whatever I do next, send all the love to

A. Nonny Mouse - I considered just calling you "Nonny," but I didn't know if that would be too familiar. Don't worry, the cards are all gone now. Oh, wait...er... anyway, I'm glad you didn't let that stop you and I'm always glad for your comments. :)

Vilja - I'd have to disagree as I don't think it was filler, but I'm still glad that you liked it, and have generally liked it overall. I'm sorry that I only have this update to give you, but I hope to have something else soon. Maybe you'll get your happy ending....maaaaybe...;)p

Houshi Lover - I read your comment and my immediate thought was that I wanted to make out with you. Um, then I reeled myself back in. Thank you for being so thoughtful and supportive, and also in a weird way for being so...emotionally affected by Miroku's plight. And Sango's reasoning will be revealed. Hearing that you love my story makes me happier than you could ever now. I kiss you. Mwah.

And into the abyss!

-------

13 - Winner Take All

"It's all because of you." - Bic Runga

-------

It's a lovely dream - someone softly stroking my hair, brushing at my bangs, playing gently with my earrings. My body is stiff, and I slowly feel that whatever version of unconsciousness I'm beginning to recover from, I went into it lying half on the naked mattress and half on the floor. It's dark in my room again. But the dream is still happening, and as I begin to wonder just how drunk I might be, I hear the soft sigh of another person.

I am no longer alone in my house.

The house that I just trashed.

This will be fun to explain.

"Um." I start, bringing my hand up to rub my sweaty and tear-stained face. I need to take a shower.

"I thought maybe we'd gotten robbed, but then I realized a burglar probably wouldn't have spent so much time tearing up our couch."

People talk about a feeling like a bucket of ice water has been dumped on their heads. I've always thought it was a hyperbole, but now, suddenly, hearing Sango's voice in the darkness of our ruined bedroom, I realize that it is the gospel truth.

I want to ask her who the hell she thinks she is that she can walk into my house and just pretend like nothing happened. But it is her house too, and I did wreck some of her belongings. It's fair of her to come back and pack her things so she can leave me and break my heart again.

I want to shout. Or scream. Or push her off the mattress. Or at the very least tell her to stop touching me. But there's nothing left inside me. Just knowing she's there has drained me of blood, bile and breath, and now I'm just a shell.

"Why are you here?"is what I finally, quietly muster.

"It is my house too, isn't it?" She laughs, more than a little bitterly.

"It was your house. I'm going to fight you for it if I have to." I slap her hand away and sit up, pressing my face into my palms - it's strange to me to feel raw skin on both instead of beads on the right side. How odd that I've barely thought about what I won until just now.

"I dont know if I'd want to leave my house in the hands of such a terrible decorator." Sango's voice is soft. "But then again, I don't plan on leaving."

Moving my hands from my face, I turn to look at her. It's dark, so I wait for my eyes to adjust to the light filtering in from the moon outside. She's sitting on the edge of the mattress, one hand on her stomach, one on the patterned fabric now that it's not on my head. Her coat is slipping off her shoulders, her hair is down and mussed, and her dim profile looks...I can't read it.

"And why dont you plan on leaving?" I cant keep the sneer out of my voice. "I seem to recall you divorcing me in Las Vegas."

"Funny, huh? Most people go to Las Vegas to get married."

"I'm not laughing, Sango."

"Neither am I."

"I'm keeping the house."

"Im not leaving, Miroku!" Her head snaps toward me, and somehow I know, I just know, that if the light was turned on, her eyes would be as red as mine. "Cut the crap and let me talk!"

"What do you have to say? That you're sorry you had to come and take away my one moment of glory? That you were so angry you couldn't let me be there alone? That you didn't trust that I would be faithful? That you had to come and jeopardize my chances without telling me? I kept calling and calling, Sango, I didn't know where you were or what I was supposed to do..." My voice is hoarse and breaking, and I can't help but inwardly berate myself for sounding so pathetic when I'm supposed to be making a stand.

"I couldn't let you know. I didnt want to ruin your concen-"

"What did you care?! You didn't want me to go and then you came to try and sabotage me! Do you think it helped my concentration at all to have no clue where my hugely pregnant wife was? To be afraid I'd ruined our marriage?" I clench my hands on my knees." But I guess I did ruin it, didn't I? Because you had to come all the way to Las Vegas, to Spiderwebs to divorce me. To show the whole world that you don't love-"

"I did it because I love you!" My Sango is crying again. How many times have we both bawled these past few days? I don't want to think about it.

"You love me, so you divorced me?"

"Did you even look at the papers?" She slams her hand onto the mattress.

"I did, Sango Hunter McHoushi. And I saw that you signed them."

She brushes her hand across her eyes and then puts both hands on her middle, looking down at it.

"My mother was a notary, Miroku, you stupid, horrible jerk. If you ever listened to me, you'd know that. When she died, I inherited a bunch of her stuff, not the least of which was some of her seals and notes for proper documentation."

Her words don't register at first, but slowly they begin to make more and more sense.

"You needed something of equal value to your life to wager, and I knew you'd forgotten. So I...I made my own gamble and took the chance that our marriage, that you and me together meant as much to you as your life." Sango is gasping on sobs now, and I don't know whether to comfort her or jump out the window I wanted to throw the crib through. "So I put my mothers seal on it! The document is null, but Naraku wont know! I was going to tell you that afterwards, but I couldn't find you...I couldnt find you and thats when I realized you thought...you thought..."

I thought you didnt love me anymore, Sango.

I thought you came and betrayed me, when you came to save my life. My desperate gamble forced you to make your own out of cleverness and love, and all I could see was myself losing you.

I want to say all these things to her, but I can't. I'm held in place, not breathing, not moving, just hearing...just hearing...

"So we got on the next plane we could which wasn't soon enough, and I didnt get home until just now and I found everything wrecked and I knew how angry you were...Miroku.."

And at that moment, we are of one mind, flinging ourselves into each others arms, working around her pregnant belly to grip one another like drowning.

"Oh Sango." Its lame, but its all I can say. "Oh Sango..."

Her hair is soft and smooth under my touch, her back is warm, shaking just slightly with leftover tears. She smells of sweat and soap and detergent, and just a little bit like the desert. I catch a faint hint of smoke in the tufts of hair next to her cheek.

"Miroku, I might have been angry when you left, but I never...I never didn't love you..."

I should tell her I'm sorry. She should tell me she's sorry. But there are no apologies here. They're not welcome.

I pull away and cup her face in my hands.

"You scared me, baby. You sat down at that table like you weren't going to take any prisoners. There was nothing in your eyes. How was I supposed to know?"

She laughs, wet and tired and grateful.

"You of all people should know what my best poker face looks like."

And I kiss her again for the first time.

-------

$1.5 million dollars goes a hell of a long way, even when you tack on all the frills.

Add to that the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Sango won for taking second, and you can have a lot of ridiculous and extravagant things.

But what's first on the list is to repair and replace what I broke in my blind sorrowful rage. We piss off a lot of furniture store employees by having to snuggle together in different positions on each couch we try. They're lucky that Sango is too far along for me to make love to her, or they might have had to close early.

Once we find the perfect couch, we put our bed back together and buy brand new sheets.

The King and Queen get a new frame and go back up on the wall.

And just to be really decadent, we pay off the entire mortgage on our house, buy a new car, a spiffy carseat, and the most luxurious stroller we can find.

And then we treat our friends to dinner after dinner after dinner, and remember every reason that we've ever loved each other from the first to the last and back again.

Sango is radiant when she is nine months pregnant, and goes into labor while we play lazy slapjack on our new bedspread. From start to finish, she is two hours, because Sango never does anything half-assed, even in the face of ridiculous difficulty and a husband who wishes that sometimes she would take it easy on herself and him.

But it doesn't end without her grabbing my collar and punching me in the face while she pushes.

I expected and hoped for nothing less.

Our son Kicho "Ace" McHoushi is born one month to the day after I won the Spiderwebs WPS in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has his mother's eyes, and because she is more to me than life itself, I am alive to see him.


	16. Epilogue Royal Flush

Epilogue - Royal Flush

"You're the very best thing in my life, and I'll love you as only I can." - Honk

-------

"Wave to daddy!"

I look up from my cards to see Sango waving Kicho's little arm at me. He's only a few days over one year now, but he's already got a full head of fuzzy black hair, and the moment it's long enough he'll get a matching ponytail like mine. But until then, I'm content to see him wearing the tiny "Bellagio" visor that we bought him. I'm wearing one, and so is Sango. We're a matching family, so adorable it's nauseating.

Were tag-teaming the Third Annual Festa al Lago Poker Tournament, Sango and I, and we've made it into a kind of celebration of sorts - it's the first tournament we've had time to play in since Kicho was born, and Kagome and InuYasha are here to see it, and Kagome is much happier with me this time around. Kouga and Ayame are on their honeymoon, so they couldn't make it, but Kohaku is standing next to his sister, his arms wrapped around Kagura's waist. She's sporting a nice big diamond now - we helped him out with that one a little, but the rest he did all by himself, including getting himself hired as a full-time writer for _Card Player_. He got his hands on a several copies of the issue with our Spiderwebs kiss on the cover - thats now framed next to the King and Queen, just to remember.

And Sango, my Sango. She's in a sexy little top that she surprised me with the other day - strapless, baggy towards the bottom with a sash that hangs down over her thigh, the folds in the fabric hiding the belly she's just starting to get from being three months along in another sort-of accidental pregnancy.

We're going to make a new McHoushi poker legacy if I have anything to say about it, as long as they stay out of Spiderwebs.

And when we arrived here, we drove past it, and I took Sango's hand in my right, kissing it. They say you never know how much something is worth until it's gone, but that's bullshit. I knew the cost of everyone and everything I lost to be alive today. It was by the grace of the poker gods and my poker goddess that there was one price I didn't have to pay, because $1.5 million would not have ever come close to covering it.

But right now, I have a brilliant hand in two whole palms, and the pot is mine without question. I stand up and walk over to the side, taking Kicho from Sango.

"Your turn, baby. Take 'em down." She grins at me, and Kicho reaches out to bap her visor. "And Kicho wishes mommy good luck. Isn't that right, Ace?"

My wife laughs and reaches up to kiss me, before stepping out from behind the rail.

Sometimes we do get what we want, and the King of Diamonds watches the Queen of Hearts take the throne.

I love you, Sango McHoushi.

End.


End file.
